Gugeleta

Off in a different direction today visiting the Township of Gugeleta.  I don't have a geographic areas down yet, and on the freeway I haven't seen any signs that say north, south, east or west, so I can't tell you which way Gugeleta was from Pinelands.  Maybe South/East?

But that is neither Here nor There.

First stop was the Etafeni Day Care Center and associated Income Generation (that is what they call revenue.)  The site is nice, with a couple of the buildings just being completed in the last two years.  This building houses the Sewing Center (one of the Income Generation functions of the site.

The site has some pretty specific criteria for being accepted into the program.

Every single one of the 72 children that are enrolled in the Day Care are HIV/Aids positive.  This photo was taken from the website, I didn't feel like photographing any of the babies that I was playing with.

Unless someone told you that these children were stricken with a terminal disease, you would probably never know.  They are happy and active and act like regular 3 year olds.  I sat and played Stack the Blocks with a little girl very much like this one.


From the Day Care, we moved on to look at the Sewing Center. The center produces clothing and bead work made by the women who attend the centers.  The same criteria of acceptance hold true for them to be in this program - they must be HIV/Aids positive.  There are currently about 35 women that are active workers.

And here is the best part!!!

They have a community garden!  Can you tell those vegetables are cabbages (a big staple here), onions, and there are almost ripe red tomatoes on the vines.  Keep in mind that this is the dead of winter, and they have ripe tomatoes!  Wish I could say that for my own garden ....

I talked at length to the Director of Marketing for the site, and he gave me a printed copy of their 2008/9 Annual Report (can this day get any better??  A garden AND financial reports??)

What we talked about, though, was how difficult it has been to get the gardens going.  The dirt that was here was toxic from decades of misuse.  The dirt was finally dug out and new dirt brought in, but it is almost completely sand.  I picked up some and amazed that they can get anything to grow in it, it is that sandy.

I asked about composting and being organic, and he said that yes, the entire site is organic, meaning no chemicals.  Then he grabbed my arm and said he wanted to show me something.

Just a couple of weeks ago, one of the volunteers decided that it was time to start a compost pile.

:)

This is what it looks like after two weeks.  I wasn't going to offer any advice, even though in looking at that pile I can say it is going to be pretty stinkty after a couple of weeks, but the Director did ask me, so I volunteered that maybe they want some browns on top of all of those greens.

Like so much of what I have seen in South Africa, it is a tiny little start.  But from tiny little starts come great things. Let's hope that happens here.